Four In-Plant Print Center Trends for Success

This is the first in a series of four articles that look at major trends that the corporate print center needs to successfully address to succeed in 2011 and beyond.

Corporate Print Center Defined

We define the new "corporate print center" as the in-house print center that now may include the in-plant, the CRD, and the data center.  Specifics vary, but the print center exists in all vertical markets, including education, healthcare, insurance, finance, government and other business operations. Our primary distinction is the exclusion of outside, commercial printers.

Although corporate print centers and commercial printers are becoming more and more similar, they still have some very important business distinctions.

Marketing, Convergence, Ease of Ordering & Workflow

Four strong in-plant print center trends that we have experienced and expect to continue are:

1. Marketing of the in-plant print center is now a necessity.
2. Print centers are converging; data centers, CRDs, and in-plant print centers are combining into one corporate print center.
3. Enterprise Print centers have to make ordering and delivery easy for their customers—easier than the local office supply superstore.
4. Continual workflow improvements by in-plants are needed to meet customer demands for shorter print runs and faster turnaround times.

In this series, which begins next week, we will review key factors driving these four major trends and how some in-plants have successfully implemented solutions to address the challenges.